Invariably skeptical thinkers are often told, by proponents of the supernatural and paranormal, that they ought to be “more ‘open-minded'” about things. It’s an admonition I’ve heard so many times, myself, that I no longer even listen to it any more. To me, it’s just another way of saying, “You should believe as I do!” and as such, is simply a juvenile whine.

The truth is — in spite of believers’ frequent accusations to the contrary — I’m very “open-minded.” I’m “open” to the idea that I may not know why things are the way they are, and am not uncomfortable with leaving it at that — for the time being. I’m “open,” for example, to the idea that I don’t necessarily know what the object was that you saw in the sky … I’m “open” to the idea that it might not actually be an extraterrestrial spacecraft. As the video above explains, it’s actually “closed-minded” to assume immediately that the object in question can only be an extraterrestrial and that there cannot be any other explanation.

Just another way in which beliefs in the paranormal and supernatural frequently lead to irrational thinking, and to believers in such things leaping to irrational and unfounded assumptions about those who don’t.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 10:58 am and is filed under Fuzzy Thinking, Metaphysics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.